A NEW institution for promoting mechanical knowledge has been formed at Bethnal-green, for the purpose of instructing operative weavers of that neighbourhood. The first meeting took place on Thursday, 10th of March, at a chapel in Church-street, Bethnal-green, when Dr. Birkbeck was requested to preside; a very numerous audience attended, to whom the learned chairman represented the great advantages likely to result from a study of mechanics, particularly to the practical weaver: he also alluded to the ingenuity which he knew to prevail among the lower classes in that part of London, and complimented them upon several valuable collections of natural curiosities, which had been formed by their industry alone. After the introductory speech, a lecture on the elements of mechanical science was delivered by Mr. Partington, of the London Institution; and subsequently two other lectures have been delivered, as a continuation of the subject, by the same gentleman. Numbers of the operative class of weavers are attaching themselves to the new Institution, which is greatly promoted and supported by the wealthy master weavers of that neighbourhood. It is now determined that this shall be a distinct society. There is no doubt but that this society, if properly conducted, will be more conducive to the improvement of British arts and manufactures than any other institution which has, or may be, formed in any other part of the kingdom.

We have already stated, that the marquis of Lansdown presented this excellent institution with a donation of one hundred pounds, and we have much pleasure in adding, that the available funds at the disposal of the committee amount to nearly ten times that sum. The arrangements for future lectures are not finally determined on, but we understand that Mr. Partington has been applied to for the delivery of a course.

air, which had been exposed to a temper ature of 118 degrees, and also to the combustion of a considerable quantity of deal shavings, and other combustible substances, in the room where John Roberts was enclosed with his new safety hood.

"The volume of the bottle, with its stopper in, was 315. Upon opening it under quicksilver, a volume equal to 32 entered. The barometer at that time was 29,83, thermometer 56.

"One hundred parts of this air was exposed to lime water, in which it occasioned no precipitate, neither was there any absorption of the volume of air. "No carbonic acid.

"It was treated with the sulphate of iron, charged with nitrous gas, and also with the green sulphate of iron, by which it was reduced to 80 parts.

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Oxygen therefore 20.

"The 80 parts were examined as to inflammable air or hydrogen, but not any was detected, therefore they may be considered as azote.

“ Therefore the change on atmospheric air in the room was

"Loss of oxygen "Increase of azote

1

•

1

HASLEDINE PEPYS. "P.S.-The slow combustion of phosphorus, gave me also 80 per cent. of azote in the same air on the 26th of March."

MR. M'CULLOCH'S LECTURES

ON

POLITICAL ECONOMY, AT THE LONDON TAVERN.

LECTURE III.

DIVISION OF LABOUR.

Circumstances which gave rise to the Division of Labour-Its effects, 1. On mechanical skill; 2. In saving time; 3. In facilitating the invention of machines.- Rise of Cities and TownsLimits to the Increase of agricultural and manufacturing Labour-Error of Adam Smith-Institution of Castes among the Hindoos and Egyptians— Necessity of Free Institutions.

THE lecture room this morning was crowded; the chairs, benches, and tables, were occupied; and it was not without difficulty we could procure either a sitting or standing-place. Unfortunately too, we were a few minutes too late to hear the commencing observations; but we collected

from a friend, the' substance of what had previously transpired.

Mr. M'Culloch, we understood, began with stating that every measure which has any tendency to add to the power of labour, or to reduce the cost of commodities produced by its agency, must add proportionably to our power of obtaining wealth and riches. Such is the effect of a division of labour; to which barter or exchange originally gave rise. In a tribe of hunters or shepherds, a particular person makes bows and arrows, for example, with more readiness and dexterity than any other. He frequently exchanges them for cattle or venison with his companions, and he finds in this manner he gets more cattle and venison, than if he himself went to the field to catch them. From a regard to his own interest therefore, the making of bows and arrows grows to be his chief business, and he becomes a sort of armourer. Another excels in making the frames and covers of huts, and thus he becomes devoted to house-carpentry. In the same manner, a third becomes a smith or brazier; a fourth, a tanner or dresser of hides or skins, the principal part of the clothing of savages. And thus the certainty of being able to exchange the surplus part of his own labour, for such parts of other men's labour as he may have occasion for, encourages every man to apply himself to, and bring to perfection, a particular occupation in which from peculiar talent and inclination he is most likely to excel.

By employments being divided, the quantity of work performed by the same number of individuals is greatly augmented; which may be ascribed to three different circumstances: first, to the increase of dexterity in each particular workman; secondly, to the saving of time, which is commonly lost in passing from one species of work to another; and lastly, to the invention of a great number of machines which facilitate and abridge labour, and enable one man to do the work of many. The division of labour by reducing every man's business to some one simple operation, and by making this operation the sole business of his life, necessarily very much increases the dexterity of the workman. A common smith, who, though accustomed to handle the hammer, has never been used to make nails; if, upon some occasion, he is obliged to attempt it, will scarcely be able to make above two or three hundred in a day, and these too very bad ones. On the other hand take a mere boy, who has been used to making nails and nothing else, and he will make between two and three thousand nails in a day.

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Secondly, the advantage which is gained by saving the time commonly lost in passing from one sort of work to another, is much greater than we should at first sight be apt to imagine. A man commonly saunters a little in turning his hand from one employment to another. When he first begins the new work he is seldom very keen and hearty; his mind, as they say, does not go to it, and for some time he rather trifles than applies to good purpose. For this reason, country workmen are usually indolent and incapable of vigorous application, from the sauntering habits acquired in changing employments.

Thirdly, the invention of all those machines by which labour is so much abridged seems to have been originally owing to a division of labour. Men are much more likely to discover easier and readier methods of attaining any object, when the whole attention of their minds is directed towards that single object, than when it is dissipated among a great variety of things. A great part of the machines, made use of in those manufactures in which labour is most subdivided, were originally the inventions of workmen, who, being each of them employed in some very simple operation, naturally turned their thoughts towards finding out easier methods of performing it. Whoever has been accustomed to visit manufactories, must have been often shown little contrivances, which were the invention of the workmen, in order to quicken and facilitate their own particular part of the work. In the first steam-engines a boy was employed to open and shut, alternately, the communication between the boiler and the cylinder, according as the piston either ascended or descended. One of these boys who loved to play with his companions, observed that, by tying a string from the handle of the valve which opened this communication to another part of the machine, the valve would open and shut without his assistance, and leave him at liberty to divert himself. A most important improvement in the steam-engine was, in this manner, the discovery of a boy who wanted to save his own labour.

Mr. M. next proceeded to trace the origin of cities and towns, and the difference between town and country labour. Rural industry is seldom so cheap or so perfect as in town; because the country does not afford the same facility for the division of employment. In a village, several trades are usually followed by the same individual; as the surgeon, for instance, unites to his avocation that of dentist or oculist. Security was doubtless one cause of the origin of cities; but that would not account for the rise of the

large towns in England or Holland. The chief cause was the facilities they afforded to the division of labour, or which is the same, the promotion of exchanges the vivifying principle-the soul of industry. The steam-engine did not derive all its advantages from its great power, but partly from being adapted to every situation. Water is a cheaper machine, but then a running stream cannot always be obtained. The steam-engine is applicable in every situation; it may be used wherever, from the number of inhabitants or other facilities, it is most desirable to establish manufactures.

The natural limit to the increase of towns is the price of provisions. As towns increase, the distance from which it must receive subsistence must also increase. Corn and coals, for instance, equal to the consumption of a large town, can only come from remote districts; the expense of carriage augments their price, and consequently checks the extension of manufactures and the increase of population. The cheapness of water carriage tends to obviate this disadvantage. Rail roads will tend still more to the same end, but these must have their limit, and towns cannot, beyond a certain point, be the seat of flourishing manufactures.

For the convenience of water carriage most great cities have been built in the vicinity of rivers. Rome was founded on the banks of the Tyber, and received supplies of corn from Sicily and Egypt. Babylon was surrounded with canals, communicating with the Euphrates; and the once flourishing city of Alexandria was seated on the Nile. Paris, of all modern cities of equal size, has the least command of water carriage, which had doubtless retarded the increase of population. Sir W. Petty stated the inhabitants of Paris in 1677, at 480,000; they do not now exceed 800,000. At the former period the inhabitants of London amounted to 681,000; they now exceed 1,300,000.

In agriculture the division of labour cannot be carried to the same extent as in manufactures. The cultivation of the soil depends on the seasons, and the same individual is obliged in turn to be a sower or reaper, mower or harrower. Smith was mistaken in thinking the price of agricultural produce depends on good or bad culture. The real cause of the rise of price is the necessity of resorting to inferior soils.

The lecturer concluded with adverting to the nature of hereditary professions, and the origin of castes among the Egyptians and Hindoos. The institution of castes made society either stationary or retrograde. It limits individuals to a

particular employment, without regard to natural fitness or inclination; destroys all chance of rising in the world, which is the great stimulus to industry and invention. Confining a man to one exclusive profession was apt to beget in him a contempt for others. Freedom of industry is necessary to its perfection and prosperity, Free and liberal institutions, which secure to every individual the just reward of intellectual and physical labour, are the true basis of national wealth and happiness.

LECTURE IV.

ACCUMULATION OF CAPITAL.

Different kinds of Capital-Advantages in abridging labour —Accumulation of Capital depends on Rate of ProfitsEffects of High Profits-Frugality of Tradesmen and the Labouring Classes Public Profusion no Cause of National Prosperity-Credit-What?

CAPITAL is of two kinds, either circulating or fixed. Circulating capital is em, ployed in raising, manufacturing, or purchasing goods, and selling them again with a profit. The capital employed in this manner yields no profit to its employer, while it either remains in his possession, or continues in the same shape. The goods of the merchant yield him no re, venue or profit, till he sells them for money, and the money yields him as little till it is again exchanged for goods. Capital so employed in going or returning, may be properly called circulating capital. Capital employed in the improvement of land, in the purchase of useful machines and instruments of trade, or in such things as yield a revenue or profit without changing masters, or circulating further, is called fixed capital.

Different occupations require different proportions between the circulating and fixed capitals employed in them. The capital of a merchant is altogether a circulating capital, having no machines or instruments unless his shop or warehouse be considered such. The capital of an artisan is fixed; a weaver in his loom, or of a carpenter in his axe. The capital of a manufacturer is partly fixed in his buildings, machinery, and steam-engines, and partly circulating in the payment of wages, or the purchase of materials.

It is only by an increase in the number of labourers, or of capital, that produce can be increased. Without an increase of capital there can be no increase of industry. Dr. Smith says, when at different periods we find population increasing, and

trade extending, we may be sure there is an increase of capital in augmenting, The increase or diminution of capital is the grand pivot on which national prosperity hinges. Capital tends to promote wealth in various ways. 1st, by enabling work to be executed that could not be undertaken without it; 2dly, by saving labour in the production of commodities; and 3dly, by enabling work to be executed better and more expeditiously.

Without capital, commodities could not be produced. For example, a pair of stockings, or piece of cloth, could not be made without money to pay the workman while occupied in making them. Agriculture could not be pursued without a spade, plough, or harrow. Capital saves labour by providing useful machines and instruments which tend to abridge it. So much are we accustomed to the aid of machinery in all the operations of industry, that we can hardly view abstractedly the insufficiency of human labour without its assistance. Looking to the state of communities in a half-civilized state, we see the immense advantages we derive from it. In Mexico and Peru, when first discovered by the Spaniards, weaving was performed by the Indians, by taking the threads and passing them from hand to hand. It took them a year or more, according to Ulloa, to do the same work we can perform in a day, or perhaps in an hour. Were machinery destroyed, we should, for a time at least, be inferior to the Indians in the South Sea. It may be doubted, whether even the ingenuity of the shipwrights of the metropolis would be able to construct a canoe so perfect as the Indians, if they had no better instruments. In muscular power there is little difference in men of different countries and degrees of civilization. By fiature man is equally, but poorly, furnished for accomplishing great physical tasks. He has not the beak of a bird or the claws of the quadruped.

On every side we see the effects of capital, in our canals and roads, in our clothes and houses. Money is one great constituent of capital. It is in commerce what oil is in machinery, by facilitating all its movements. Dr. Beeke computed the total capital of this country at two thousand millions. Of this sum not more than fifty millions, or one fourteenth part, is in money. Mr. M. here adverted to the advantages of capital and machinery in the cotton trade, in spinning, and especially in the multiplication of printed cottons. Machinery had enabled them not only to produce these articles at an infinitely cheaper rate, but of superior quality. The demand had in consequence

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increased, and commerce and employment augmented.

Without capital, the finest soil and climate were comparatively unproductive. It drained marshes, and made rocks and mountains teem with abundance. Spain, contrasted with Holland, was a striking example; the former enjoying every natural advantage, was inferior to the latter in wealth and opulence, solely from want of capital. The circumstances most favourable to accumulation is the high rate of profits; for capital is nothing more than the accumulation of previous industry. Where profits are high, wages are high, and these two form a good criterion of national happiness. It is not, however, by the state of one branch of industry we can judge of the general prosperity. Agriculture or commerce may be temporarily depressed by accidental causes, and yet the general state of society far from discouraging. The average rate of profit is the only barometer of national prosperity or decline. In the United States, the profits on capital are considerable, and wages high. A low rate of profit is a sure sign of encroaching poverty and misery. Sir William Temple informs us, that in the year 1680, the Dutch were the most enterprising people in Europe, yet the causes of their decline had begun to sap the roots of their greatness. Heavy taxes incurred in war to éstablish their liberty, lessened the profits on the employment of capital. In consequence, money was invested in the funds of France or other countries. Here the lecturer cautioned his auditors against making a similar inference in respect to England, in which there was many points of dissimilarity. By the repeal of the corn laws, and the duties on the import of the raw material, there would scarcely be a limit to the prosperity of thiscountry.

High profits are advantageous because they afford the means for amassing capital, consequently creating employments and diffusing general comfort, by high wages. Want is the parent of idleness and dissipation. Those who have little are usually more careless and improvident than those who have much. Small traders, like grocers and cheesemongers, are always observed to be more frugal and economical than the labouring classes. Let a man have a little and it affords not only the means, but the appetite to acquire more. Frugality, the desire of bettering our condition, is the great spring of improvement. To this principle we owe our capital, our shipping, our public edifices, every thing. From its creative power it has been compared to the vis medicatrix naturæ,

Mr. M'Culloch, we understood, combated the opinion of Smith on the effect of a fall of wages on profits. A rise of profits by the fall of wages can only be temporary. An increase of profits always tends to the increase of capital, consequently to the increase of employment and wages. Profuse public expenditure is unfavourable to the accumulation of capital. More a government spends and the less individuals can save. Neither the capital of England nor of France are so great as they would have been, in consequence of the profusion of their go

vernments.

Much has been said on credit, but you are aware it must have capital for its basis. The advantage of credit consists in the facilities it affords for the employment and distribution of capital; and the state of it is an infallible sign, not only of the amount of capital, but the means of employing it.

Mr.McCulloch concluded with enlarging on the many advantages in arts and science enjoyed in the present day, and with announcing the subject of the ensuing lecture.

Varieties.

CURIOUS DISCOVERY.- Mr. Lee has brought a charge of a very decisive and extraordinary character, against the accuracy of the "Greenwich Observations" for 1821. We have since heard, that this business has been agitated in the council of the Royal Society, and that Mr. Lee has delivered into them a list of more than two thousand errors in the following volume for 1822, just published. What the result of this extraordinary exposure will be, we are at a loss to conjecture. But we can state, on good authority, that the astronomer royal has thought fit to direct Mr. Murray, the publisher, not to sell any more copies of that expensive work for the present.

USEFUL INVENTION.-A contrivance, invented by Mr. Sperring, of Buckland, near Frome, to relieve the wheel-horse of a two-wheel carriage going down hill, was tried at Frome on the 9th of March, before several scientific gentlemen and others, and found to answer the purpose to their entire satisfaction. It takes the whole weight from the horse's back, without removing the load; and very much retards the motion of carriages, without being in any way connected with the wheels. It is very simple in its construction, and may be altered at the top or bottom of the hill in a few seconds with great ease; it may also be disengaged from the carriage in two minutes.

Essays in Rhyme, new edition, 6s.-Taylor's Itinerary of a Traveller, 5s. 6d. Blaquier's Narrative of a Second Journey to Greece, 8vo. 12s.-A Peep at the Pilgrims, 8vo. 10s. 6d. Sir William Drummond on 3 vols. 12mo. 18s.-Analecta Latina Majora, the Origin of several States, Empires, and Cities, 2 vols. 8vo. ll. 4s.-Pocket Annual 8.6d. bound in blue roan.-Mariamne, 3 vols. Register for 1825, 32mo. 7s. 6d. in boards; 12mo. 18s.-Barclay's Apology for the Quakers, 8vo. new edition, 8s.-Common-Place Chevalier Bayard, 2 vols. crown 8vo. 16s. Book of Epigrams, 24mo. 4s. — Memoirs of

-Toplady's Works, 6 vols. new edition, enlarged, 21. 14s.-Campbell on the Gospel, new edition, 2 vols. 8vo. 1. 4s.-Howe's Blessedness of the Righteous, 18mo. new edition, 4s.

On Saturday last, Mr. Roberts made a second experiment with his safety-hood, at the Mechanics' Institution, in Southamp ton Buildings. A small room had been constructed with great ingenuity by Mr. Hackett, in the area of the theatre now building; it was made of rough boards lightly nailed together, with a flat roof, forming a very compact chamber, about four yards square. A large quantity of damp hay and shavings were set on fire in the middle of the building, until the dense smoke rising from the flames issued from